first dvd burner recommendations?

I'm in the process of purchasing my first dvd burner and my local store has these models to choose from...

CDDVDWAS01 ASUS DVD-RW DRW-0402P
CDDVDWBQD1 Benq DW400A DVD+RW
CDDVDWGA01 Gigabyte DVD +/- r/rw
CDDVDWIO10 Iomega 7300 DVD+/-RW 4X
CDDVDWLGD2 LG GSA-4040B DVD+/-RW 4X
CDDVDWLGD8 LG GSA-4080B DVD+/-RW 8X OEM
CDDVDWLGD81 LG GSA-4081B DVD+/-RW 8X Retail
CDDVDWLI10 Lite On LDW-411S + -R/RW
CDDVDWLI11 Lite On LDW-811S DVD -/+ RW
CDDVDWPID4 Pioneer A06 DVDRW OEM
CDDVDWPID41 PIONEER A06 DVDRW OEM BLACK
CDDVDWPID5 Pioneer A06 DVDRW Retail Kit with S/ware
CDDVDWPID45 Pionner DVR-107DSW 8X DVD Burner
CDDVDWR01 RICOH MP5240A
CDDVDWSAS01 SAMSUNG DUAL DVD+/-R/CDROM+/-R 4X DVDRW
CDDVDWSO76 Sony DRU 510A DVDRW
CDDVDWSO51 Sony DW- U14A DVDRW OEM
CDDVDWSO02 Sony USB DVD+/-RW KIT DRX510UL

my system is pretty old now running windows xp pro with an athlon 750 mhtz processor with 256 meg of ram only but i'm reluctant to do a major upgrade at this time.
can someone please recommend one of the above burners to me which will give me reliability and not to many expensive coasters please?

any help or feedback would be very much appreciated.

thanks.

Mike.

 

Mike, You listed a lot of nice burners there. Please reconsider upgrading to a faster system. Yes, you can probably put one of these nice drives in but with that CPU and amount of RAM things are gonna be slow, real slow. I don't think you will need a 4X or 8X burner. Its like racing tires on a Honda 90, IMHO.

 

thanx for the feedback fasfrank appreciate it however a major pc overhaul is not feasible for a little while at least and with that in mind could you possibly suggest one of the above mentioned burners....time isn't a problem with encoding....i'm used to running my encoding for 20 hours or more with TEMPGenc when i was converting to SVCD...lol so this would be a great improvement IMHO.

thanks again for any help.

Mike.

 

Maybe consider this dvd unit: the nec 2500.

Got it at http://www.newegg.com for $119 (black) + free t-shirt and free shipping,

Nec was manufacturer for PLEXTOR until most recent 8x burner.

check out this link http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/134/1

 

Hiya Herbs,

'bout time you upgraded your kit

moles42:
if you have to stick with your existing system, I would suggest the Pioneer, for the following reasons:

They have been making DVD burners for a long time.
They have very good support (manufacturer AND community)
They are noted for reliability
Most (if not all) burner software supports them
It is the most common choice among long-time users (check these forums)
They have good support for most types/brands of media
etc.
etc.

Herbsman is running a similar system to yours, so following his lead is A Good Idea(tm) - a known working config is a good thing.

Just my suggestions (I use Pioneer exclusively, Burners and Readers)

Have Fun...

 

Many thanks guys for all the useful feedback...
I will opt for the pioneer burner because of their reliability and support.
your advice was very helpful indeed.

thanks again.

Mike.

 

Aha!!

And WHEN they go bust, you MIGHT be able to keep the PC.

You can config your old PC as NAT/Security/Firewall etc. etc.

Have Fun...

 

Hi Dr,
I'm in total agreement about Pioneer. I bought an A04 on Ebay and requested a firmware upgrade disc from Pioneer.com the same day. The disc arrived long before the burner!
Doc, what kind of read speeds are you getting from your Pioneer ROMs? I'd like to compare a "real" drive speed to my Sony, not the one on the side of a box.
A little research reveals what a hunk of junk my CRX300 is. The performance has been good but I've read nothing good about their reliability. I anticipate a drive crash soon.

Cheers,
Frank

 

Hiya Frank,

Pioneer DVD-121 (rip speed from 6x at centre of disk to 14x at edge of disk)

That is real-world figures, though an optimised system with a perfect disk.

Normally it tops out a little over 12x - depends on the film/disk....

The drive is rated at 16x so I get some good figures out of it.

I don't flash my drives UNTIL I have a replacement ready - safety, security, reliability etc. etc.

Sony DVD burners are nowhere near as good as their CD burners were.

Have Fun...

 

Herbs,

Just noticed you a MOD, I am going to have to behave myself now, otherwise you can just pop up the road & give me a slap

Norton SystemWorks is not secure ENOUGH..
Can't have too much security nowadays

Byeee...

 

hey guys one more quick question...

might seem a bit stupid asking this but once the dvd burner is installed does it then mean i can remove my cd burner and dvd reader and the new pioneer burner will replace all?

thanx.

Mike.

 

hi,i was just reading your reply about dvd burners,i have a old pc with 128mb ram but a slow old processor,if i install a dvd burner on to the pc then will it work o.k.im not worried about speeds just if it will work?would appreciate some feedback.

 

Herbsman:
This flash f/w you speak of...will I have the ability to get it or will i even need it with one of the latest pioneer burners?
as u can see i'm a total novice with this but any info u can pass on to me would be of great help and much appreciated.
although my system is "slow" by todays standards i would like the burner i buy (pioneer) to run at it's peak.

thanx again.

Mike.

 

how would i go about obtaining the "firmware upgrade" for the pioneer?
would i have to contact pioneer themselves or would the retailer have it available?

thanx for all your help.

Mike.